Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington DC schools stated in an interview that some of the 266 teachers laid off in October had abused kids sexually, or hit them. The prior reason given for the layoffs was budget cuts.
The Feb 2010 issue of Fast Company quoted the chancellor as follows: “I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school.”
The difficulty is that this quote does not mesh with the absence of police reports about these supposed infractions, and the Teachers Union also claims no knowledge.
Michelle Rhee, who seems to have been unable to lift Washington DC schools out of the mire of low performance and high dropout rate, has some explaining to do.
If the statement is wrong, then the reputations of teachers have been ruined. If the statement is correct, then those teachers not guilty of abuse are smeared by the actions of those involved, while the abusers themselves have escaped criminal prosecution.
[shari]
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